


Unexpected Bravery

by padfootdreams



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Friendship, Gen, Hogwarts Express, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Pureblood Politics (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 12:51:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20046337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/padfootdreams/pseuds/padfootdreams
Summary: What if Sirius Black hadn't run away to the Potters' house, but the grown-ups at Hogwarts had decided to do something about the situtation. Warning for descripitions of injuries caused by abuse/ violence. Not beta-read, sorry.





	Unexpected Bravery

The platform of 9 ¾ was filled with witches and wizards who had come to see their children off to school. It was the first day of term after the Christmas holidays and the January air was fresh and clear with a soft fall of snow over the heads of the crowd.

As the thin brown-haired boy named Remus Lupin stepped onto the platform he immediately spotted two of his best friends, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew and he waved happily to them. He could feel the bone-deep ache of the approaching full moon which would be in 4 days’ time, but that did little to dampen his bright mood and his scarred face lit up with a grin as his friends waved back to him. Ever since his three closest friends had mastered the Animagus transformation just at the start of Term this autumn, a great feat for three fifth-years, he´d had no reason to fear the full moon, but rather to look forward to it as another adventure to experience together with the other Marauders. His mother hugged him tightly.

“Promise me you´ll owl us right after the Full, Remus, or I´ll worry”. Her son couldn´t help rolling his eyes, but he was still smiling at her.

“ You always worry anyway, Mum”.

His father embraced him after his mother had pulled away, eying the gleaming, new prefect badge pinned on the front of his son´s robes with a slightly sceptic look.

“Please try to stay out of trouble this term, at least, now that you are a Gryffindor Prefect, even if it probably is futile to expect it of your friends.”

Remus promised he would indeed try his best to do that, and then proceeded to drag his trunk towards the last of the red train carriages, where he knew his friends would be waiting for him.

When he’d entered the train, after a bit of trouble getting his trunk up the steep steps, he realised Peter and James probably hadn’t managed to get away from Mrs Potter´s fussing, or more likely Mr and Mrs Pettigrew’s eager talking. The Pettigrews were a bit like their son in that way, Remus thought to himself fondly, but then stopped dead in his tracks upon opening the door of the last compartment, frozen at the sight that met him there.

His friend Sirius Black was deeply asleep stretched out across a couple of seats, he´d probably boarded the train early. But finding Sirius there alone wasn´t what startled the young werewolf. If he himself looked roughened up after a Full Moon, it was nothing to how the Black heir now looked. Sirius had a purple bruise blossoming beneath his right eye which had swollen almost entirely shut, contrasting sharply against the sickly grey pallor of his skin and a jagged, deep cut across his left cheek. And Sirius hair, his beautiful raven hair, had been sheared short, close to his scalp.

Remus felt anger build like a hot fire in his belly, turning his head quickly to the side as he heard his two other friends coming up behind him in the corridor. James laughed loudly as he turned to Peter to say something but quickly fell silent as soon as he spotted the expression on Remus’s face, his own face now mirroring the anger of his friend. He ran towards the doorway of the compartment and a quick look was all it took before his anger exploded.

“ I’m going to kill these bastards, daring to call themselves his parents, pureblood maniacs”.

Sirius stirred on his seat and groaned softly, blinking against the light with his functioning left eye.

“Hey Prongs, he rasped hoarsely “Long time, no see”.

“It´s barely been three weeks, and you come back looking like this!” James shouted, gesticulating angrily at Sirius injured face, but stopped short as Sirius flinched violently.

“You´re frightening him, James” Remus said and put a hand on his friends arm to lower it again.

Sirius´s breaths came in gasps, his hands closing convulsively, grey eyes looking away from them, out of the window. The train had started moving by now, and his gaze followed the rows of London houses passing by.

“Wormy, why don´t you run and buy some Pumpkin juice and pastries for us, it looks like Padfoot needs it.“ James said, thrusting a few galleons into his friend´s hands.

Peter just looked at him wide-eyed for a second, but did as James asked after putting up his own trunk on the shelf opposite Sirius.

“What the Hell did they do to you this time, Pads? ”, James asked more quietly as the door closed behind the smallest of the Marauders.

“Nothing they haven’t done before”, Sirius answered in a bitter tone. He lifted a shaking hand to run over what was left of his hair.

“ Mother fancied I needed a haircut”. When Sirius had left for the holidays it had been thick, gleaming, and long enough to brush his shoulders, making most of the Hogwarts girls jealous.

Remus slowly kneeled beside his injured friend while James sat down in the sweat opposite them still looking extremely angry.

“I will take out my wand now to heal your cheek, don´t be startled” he realised he was talking as one might to a frightened horse or dog, which was somehow fitting considering his friend’s animagus form. 

“Already tried that” Sirius said tiredly, “That cut won´t close, I am sure one of my mother´s rings must be cursed.”

“Come on, Pads, there must be more to heal, underneath your robes. You have seen me after The Full, so let us, please” Remus begged.

“I´m fine” Sirius snapped, turning away abruptly again.

“Don´t be ridiculous” James said, standing up, drawing his wand and locking the compartment door with a sharp wave and a whispered “ Colloportus”.

“What about Wormtail…” Sirius began. He had somehow never been able to stand Peter witnessing his injuries caused by his family, he didn’t know why. Sirius realised he didn’t know why he wanted to hide his weakness from him compared to his other friends.  
James grinned, despite himself.

“Wormtail always had a thing for the Trolley Witch, strangely, so he will be gone for a while”.

Sirius couldn’t help smiling at that but quickly grew sober again as his werewolf friend helped him turn around and slowly lift his robes over the head.

The shirt underneath was stained with blood, Remus noted alarmed, and tried to pry the fabric away from the cuts that littered his friend´s shoulders and back without causing too much pain.

“Damn cuts on the back won´t close with magic either, _Flagellum Curse_”, Sirius muttered, his breath hitching as the shirt got stuck in the half-healed scabs. 

“I am not entirely incompetent coming to healing charms, you know. Already tried everything”, Moony. Should´ve seen them before, wouldn´t stop bleeding for hours.”

“I have some Dittany and Pain Potions in my trunk, Dad packed it for the Full”, Remus told James, who was still standing beside them watching the exchange between his friends worriedly. 

“You, are going to Madam Pomfrey as soon as we arrive, to get a blood replenishing potion”. Remus said looking at Sirius, the stern tone of his voice leaving no room for argument.

Sirius blinked back at him uncomprehendingly “And what do you suggest I tell her, Moony?

“You could always try with the truth”, Remus answered matter-of-factly.

“And get me killed during Easter? No, thanks. Prongs will take the cloak and steal it for me”.

“If you say so”, James said hesitantly as he rummaged around in Remus´s trunk after the potions.

“ But this is the last time I cover for you. God, it has never been this bad before. It really has to end”, he finished heatedly, slamming down the potions on the table between the seats.

Remus meanwhile had pulled Sirius’s shirt off entirely, freezing for a second when he saw his friend’s right arm and the scars etched into it, forming the word “_Mudblood lover_” positioned similarly to the Dark Mark he had seen on Dolohov´s arm earlier that year.

James, who hadn’t noticed the horrifying words, took the small blue bottle with the pain potion, pulled out the cork, and offered it to his friend.

“I was managing fine before you lot stormed in, waking me up” Sirius protested at first, but took the potion and downed it after a stern look from Remus. He sighed softly as the pain lessened instantly.

“Am I also this difficult when I´m injured? Remus asked James, who shook his head with a sad smile on his face.

After a touch to his shoulder, Sirius lay down on his stomach on the seats, almost immediately going back to sleep, and together they treated his wounds with Dittany, also adding some to the hideous words on his friend’s arm. ("No you can´t go off and kill the Blacks, Prongs! Trust me, I would like to join you"). Not that Dittany was going to help much against that scarring at this point as it was already healed, Remus thought bitterly and proceeded to wrap his friend´s back in clean bandages.

James sat down and kicked at the opposite seat angrily.

“He has to come to my place for Easter, or they will kill him. How dare they mark him like cattle, those psychotic..., he trailed off " 

Remus tidied Sirius bloody shirt away and put the empty potion bottles inside his own trunk, then waved his wand to open the door at Peter’s timid knock. His friend seemed to have bought half the sweets in the witch´s trolley, it seemed, and he dumped it on the empty table between them, as well as a couple of containers of pumpkin juice.

“Thanks, Wormy”. James said and grabbed a packet of chocolate frogs. They all sat down and talked softly, explaining about the healing to Peter and watched the sky getting darker as they came closer to Scotland. Sirius slept the entire journey.

Sirius had gone straight to their dormitory after they arrived, skipping the welcoming feast and the Sorting, blaming his tiredness. Remus on the other hand, suspected it had more to do with pain and his friend avoiding his Slytherin brother, as well as their multiple cousins in that House. James had charmed their trunks to float up the stairs behind Sirius and then snuck away to the hospital wing, leaving a small bottle of blood replenishing potion on his friend’s nightstand beside a couple of uneaten pasties from the train and a can of pumpkin juice, before joining the Feast.

Sirius slept the whole night and almost the whole first day of classes, and didn´t wake up until after his friends had gone down to dinner.

Luckily Prongs left a cooling charm on the food to keep it from spoiling, Sirius thought as he took a tentative bite from a pastry after having. He regretted it almost immediately as he felt the nausea rising and stumbled out of bed into the bathroom to throw up in the toilet. He lay on the cold, tiled floor and watched the ceiling spin in small circles before he passed out. James found him there as he returned after Quidditch training and carried him back to bed.

“Sorry, I passed out”, Sirius whispered as soon as he woke up when James has cast an _Enervate_. His friend silently handed him the blood replenishing potion to drink and afterwards a glass of water.

“Still sure about not wanting the Hospital Wing?“ he said. Sirius shook his head. “I would rather bleed to death on the floor” he said emphatically. 

  
“Don’t say that”, James said, shuddering slightly at the not too unlikely scenario, feeling suddenly cold despite the fire crackling in the in the corner.

“Moony is in the Library studying, but he will probably return soon. And Wormtail is Merlin knows where”.

“Probably off chasing that blond Hufflepuff girl", Sirius said, laughter in his tired voice and James chuckled despite everything.

“ I will try to cover for you tomorrow with McGoogles but she is probably going to come here soon in person. She worries about you, you know” James sighed, suddenly serious again. Privately he thought their Transfiguration Professor and Head of House might already have her suspicions regarding the Blacks’ family life. She certainly was too intelligent not to.

  
As Sirius woke up the following morning his friends had already left for breakfast and he dragged himself out of bed, wincing in pain as he pulled his robes over his head without bothering with a shirt, and headed straight to Transfiguration, their first lesson of the day.

The other Marauders arrived a while later, shooting him worried glances as Professor McGonagall arrived, took one look at him and ordered him to go straight to the hospital wing. The cut on his cheek, as well as the bruises had faded somewhat after the Dittany, but he was still deadly pale and in the bright sunlight of the classroom his cheeks seemed hollow, making his grey eyes appear even larger than usual.

“Would you be so kind as to go with him, Mr Lupin”, she ordered Remus who stood up, pulling Sirius with him.

“Please, please, please, Moony” Sirius pleaded desperately with him as soon as they had shut the classroom door behind them. “No hospital wing, please! ”.  
Remus raised his wand “_Stupify_” and Sirius went limp in his arms.

“I’m sorry, Padfoot” he whispered as he lifted his friend, startled at how light he had become during the Holidays. He headed towards the hospital wing as fast as his legs could carry him.

When her lessons ended for the day, Minerva McGonagall didn’t even bother to tidy the classroom, but went straight to the Headmaster, storming up the spiral staircase, snarling the password at the startled gargoyle, before knocking angrily on the oak door to Dumbledore’s study.

“Have you seen the boy, Albus!” she demanded angrily. Her college and friend, as well as boss, regarded her calmly behind his half-moon spectacles as he questioned: “Who?”  
“Sirius Black” she snapped, “Who else? Looking like an Inferius who’s been killed all over again” she said irritably.

“ I don’t know what you mean, Minerva.”  
“Poppy sent me her Patronus that Lupin had arrived in the Hospital Wing with Sirius Black unconscious. She told me the Black heir displayed symptoms of dark curses as well as of severe blood loss, malnutrition and… “ She fell silent as she saw the expression on Dumbledore’s face, and she realised…

“You knew” she screamed, “ You knew, and you still let him go back there every year!”

“And you know, as well as I do, that the Black Family is part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, and therefore untouchable in the Wizengamot, every case against them would fall apart like a house of cards" Dumbledore stated. "Besides, where is the proof? ”

“Anyone who looks at him couldn’t possibly doubt…” Minerva began.

“ But these injuries could have been caused by anyone. There are a lot of unpleasant figures in the Wizarding World nowadays. That boy will never agree to give witness, not the least because of what could happen to his younger brother should their parents be angered. “

Professor McGonagall didn’t answer this but turned on her heel, hastening towards the Hospital Wing, her steps clicking sharply against the stone floor of the corridors. Remus Lupin was there, she noted as she entered. He was sitting in the chair beside his friend’s bed, gently stroking the back of Sirius’s hand and the faint bruising that circled the boy´s wrist. The young werewolf’s face was taunt with pre-moon tiredness, or it could have been worry, like she felt herself, she thought distractedly. At first, she couldn’t see her injured student’s face since the curtains were half drawn, but Poppy Pomfrey pushed them to the side as she appeared behind them. 

Sirius was looking a bit better compared to this morning, Minerva thought, his cheeks had a bit more colour in them, she was sure, but he was stirring restlessly in his sleep, whimpering occasionally as if in pain.

“Dreamless sleep potion” the School Healer said, “I need to wake him to administer it”. Surprisingly Remus Lupin turned to her. “He usually sleeps lightly, and has frequent nightmares.” the fifth-year Gryffindor Prefect said . “ I don’t think waking him up right now is a good idea, you should wait until James comes”. He looked down shamefully. “I had to stun Sirius to be able to bring him here” he admitted in a quiet voice.

They all turned their heads sharply at the sound of a door opening as James Potter came storming in, dressed in full Quidditch gear, his broomstick in his hand, leaving a trail of mud on the floor. He’d clearly abandoned the Gryffindor team’s practise early out of worry for his friend. Everyone who knew them knew that he he considered Sirius his brother in all but blood.

“Is he okay, please tell me his is okay” he said to his werewolf friend, hardly seeming to notice the two adults present.

“Whoa, James”, Remus said, half rising from the chair, “Easy”. He then up stood, somewhat stiffly, so his friend could take his place on the chair by the bed. James grabbed Sirius’s hand and leaned forward towards the bed saying softly “ It’s alright Pads, you’re safe now”.

Despite the gentle approach, Sirius jerked upright abruptly, gasping as if having run a great distance, looking frantically around him with momentarily unseeing eyes, before focusing on James’s face.

“They are not here”, his friend continued.

“You are safe” Remus added from behind James.

“What…. what’s going on” Sirius slurred, eyes suddenly heavy with the effects of pain potion, finally taking in the surroundings and their watching teachers. He groaned, “ I guess it’s all out now. Now you all know that I really am a coward, too weak to fight back, what a fine Gryffindor I am”.

“They had you chained, Sirius” Remus said quietly. “There was no possible way you could have fought like that”.

“Probably should have given up” Sirius said, but somehow they got the impression he didn´t really mean it, and his two friends started protesting simultaneously.

“Enough of this” Madam Pomfrey exclaimed, pulling out a bottle of Dreamless Sleep Potion from a cupboard nearby, uncorking it, and promptly tipped it into her patient’s mouth. Sirius coughed slightly but swallowed and sank back against the cushions in instant sleep, resting quietly this time.

“ You have to leave shortly, Mr Potter”, the Healer said, eying the muddy Quidditch robes with a disgusted look. “ But you better stay here, Remus” she said to her monthly charge who just then ran his scarred hands across his neck, grimacing slightly at the pain there.

“Perhaps a pain potion for you as well?

“Yes, please” the young werewolf agreed. “Since the Full Moon is tomorrow and it’s best I stay here anyway” turning to whisper something to James before his friend left for their dormitory.

The Matron and Transfiguration teacher turned away and walked towards Pomfrey’s office. After about half an hour the Headmaster joined them. He sat down heavily in a chair by the fire.

“I have just visited young Sirius Black, I ran across Mr Potter who was most insistent that I visit his injured friend in person.

“Seeing the new, very telling scars as well as his general appearance, I have decided to arrange that he stays with the Potters during school holidays from now on. I will personally floo over to Grimmauld place to inform his parents”, he added as he saw his two colleagues´ bewildered faces. Upon which he promptly took a handful of Floo powder from a jar on the mantelpiece and disappeared into the flames of Madam Pomfrey´s fireplace.

The two women looked at each other disbelievingly. “ I wonder what changed his mind, Poppy”, Minerva McGonagall said.

“ Did you see the boy´s arm?” the Matron asked quietly. Minerva shook her head. “ They carved "_Mudblood lover_" into his right forearm, I was unable to remove the scars due to dark magic.” If Minerva didn´t know her collegue better (as a restrained professional healer ) she would say she was almost crying. “What sort of people would do that to a child?”

“ There will never be a Dark Mark on that arm, and Sirius have outlived his usefulness to the Blacks as an Heir, making it very dangerous for him to stay in that house. It even means mortal peril. Albus must have had some dirty secrets indeed hanging over them, threating exposure, for them to let their oldest son go”, the Scottish witch mused.

“ I think I have an idea what that could be about, I sent a very informative Patronus to our Headmaster as well, when Remus turned up here with Sirius.”, Poppy Pomfrey said, suddenly a cheerful expression on her round face. “ If they play dirty, I play dirty…”

“ I´m still glad you helped save him, Poppy, despite breaking your Healers Oath. “Oh, I did nothing of the sort, this is old information from our days in school, something I happened to overhear, maybe I will tell you someday when everything’s calmed down a bit”. “There is something of a Gryffindor in you”, the Scottish witch said. 

Which was the finest compliment a muggleborn Hufflepuff Healer could expect from the Head of Gryffindor House, Poppy Pomfrey thought, but she also thought of the Headmaster who had himself been a Gryffindor student, who had still done nothing in five years time to save an innocent child from the suffering dealt out by the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.


End file.
